Mercedes has issued a formal response to Red Bull’s apology to Andrea Kimi Antonelli over the swathes of online abuse he faced in the aftermath of the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix.
In the closing laps of the Qatar GP, Antonelli battled Antonelli for fourth before the young Italian ran wide, allowing Norris to steal the place at the chequered flag to take crucial points.
Title rival Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, radioed his driver to state Antonelli had let Norris through, a view echoed by team advisor Helmut Marko post-race.
The combined response prompted Antonelli to receive a torrent of online abuse before Red Bull issued a statement retracting its claims, and the FIA released its own statement.
Mercedes has now responded to Red Bull’s gesture, standing firm in the face of social media abuse.
“We take online abuse very seriously,” said Deputy Technical Director Simone Resta in a video released by Mercedes.
“With the communications team, there’s a lot of work on tools and platform to create a safe area for the fans to interact with the team.”
Mercedes clarifies Antonelli Qatar GP incident
Resta praised Red Bull’s statement before clarifying what caused Kimi Antonelli to lose the position to Norris.
“On top of it, it was great to see on Monday a statement from Red Bull, stating their position,” he continued. “And we really appreciated this one.”
“He was driving quite on the limit. He was on a longer stint than Norris behind.
“Also he was trying to catch up [Carlos] Sainz ahead. He was entering into the DRS zone, and so very close to Sainz.
“And like I said before, losing quite a bit of aerodynamic load with the wake effect.
“So he was trying to attack, but he also was trying to defend. And he was on the limit. And there’s a snap and he lost just enough to lose position to Norris.”
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